Must WIN for the Bears, Latest with Tom Brady, NFL Network's Kyle Brandt joins the pod

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
What is going on everybody, John Middlecalff, that'd be me.
Three and out would be this little thing we like
to call a podcast, and we got a big one
for you because have some football takes. I think the
Bears must win Territory this weekend so their season doesn't unravel.
Got the Cowboys rolling into town. I want to defend
Tom Brady. Chargers got good news today as Wilson thoughts

(00:38):
on Mahomes and the Eagles. But Kyle Brandt, who is
one of the hosts of Good Morning Football, and he's
doing this show on Vice watching super Bowls with great
players like Kurt Warner, Emmitt Smith, and he joined me
for like thirty plus minutes. He was awesome, So I
don't think I've ever met him in person, but he

(00:59):
was really good. Good. So we talked to Kyle Brandt
about the business football bunch of bs meaning we bs to.
It was fun. He's awesome And I also did a
little mail bag at John Middlecoff is the Instagram firing
those dms. Wanted to put that at the end, So
you try to incorporate you people that ask questions I
didn't get to, so I'm trying to get through them all.

(01:22):
I'm here for the people. So we got a little
mail bag. So it's basically some takes, Kyle Brandt and
a mail bag. That would be the show. You guys
know the drill. Subscribe to the podcast, subscribe to the
YouTube page. But first, you know, I gotta tell you
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take as low as prices guarantee. This might sound a
little crazy because obviously I don't think view this team

(02:25):
as a playoff team. They're not a contender, But in
terms of the health of their season, I don't think
it's crazy to say this is must win for the Bears,
because I'll never forget when I first got into radio,
I worked with a lot of people that had been
in the business for a long time, and back then
radio kind of like television. If you're a news anchor,

(02:46):
you kind of bounce around. It's like being a coach.
You go wherever the job is. I say this all
the time. I feel very fortunate that I'm in this
era where I didn't need to just move to some
other city for my career. When it came to talking
about sports, I could just create a studio in my
room in a shed wherever, and talk on a microphone

(03:10):
and do the job. Technology has benefited me greatly. But
and same thing when it comes to these radio hosts
that have transitioned into podcasts. But I remember a buddy
of mine, John Lund, whose longtime radio hosts been everywhere
in the country. He said, worked in Detroit, he said,
one thing that stood out to him in that market
was guys like negativity because they were used to losing.

(03:33):
The Lions lost all the time. Now clearly that has
changed with Dan Campbell, and I thought the same thing
in Philadelphia. Not that they like losing, because they don't.
But in terms of successful radio, you will crush it
if they win, just like you will crush it if
they're losing, because people have no problem tuning in to
the negativity. It's the opposite on the West Coast. I

(03:56):
lived in the Bay Area. When the teams lose, people
turn you off. You can say it's fair weather. They
do not like negativity when when things turn south with
a football team, with a basketball team, with a baseball team,
your ratings plummet. Some places that they at least stay
the same, if not go up. And I do think
Chicago when it comes to the media, when it comes

(04:18):
to the fan base, there's a lot of negativity surrounding.
You know, the franchise and getting Ben Johnson was a
really big deal. They gave him a ton of money
and the hopes were high. Hell I kind of bought it.
I'm like, I think they're going to be dramatically better.
But as a buddy of mine texted me, today, is
like God, and this is a buddy in the league.
It's pretty ugly right now. For Ryan Pols, he clearly overrated.

(04:41):
The roster. People are coming for him. And we see
sometimes and this happens in the SEC a lot, when
people are out for you, it's hard to fend off
that tsunami that ultimately leads to you losing your job.
And I think if the Bears, who if they were
to lose this game to the Dallas Cowboys. Now, granted

(05:02):
they're currently an underdog at home against a team that
we did not think was gonna be good at all,
in Brian the Chottenheimer, whose defensive coordinator is Matt Eberflus,
and they come to Chicago and they win this thing,
it could kind of get out of control because they're
not gonna be any good on the road throughout the season.
They don't play the Packers till the end of the year.

(05:22):
They got some guaranteed El's upcoming on the season, and
then they just have some random road games like the
Raiders and the Commanders where it's like, ah, you could
win those games or you could lose them both. So
all of a sudden, you look up and the Bears
are like two and six. They have a first time
head coach who I saw this clip. I was at
the gym and I looked up and McAfee was on

(05:44):
one of the televisions and they were showing Ben Johnson,
and I hadn't seen it till Wednesday after the loss
to Detroit where obviously they gave up fifty points and
they got blown out in the second half. And he
goes up Dan Campbell a very brief interaction and then
start sprinting toward the locker room. And Jared Goff, who
obviously thinks extremely highly of Ben Johnson, who has to

(06:08):
look at Ben going this guy helped resurrect my career.
Who got his back after the game, saying I didn't
love the f Ben Johnson chance in the stadium, tried
to go shake his hand, and Ben Johnson barely gave
him the time of day and sprinted the locker room. Now,
I get you show me a good loser, and I'll
show you a loser.

Speaker 3 (06:29):
Right.

Speaker 2 (06:29):
Tom Brady was notoriously a sore loser. Same thing with Belichick,
but typically they were losing to whoever in the Super
Bowl or the AFC Championship Game. There was no connection.
Those guys, specifically Goff, the rest of the offensive guys,
and Dan Campbell changed the course of Ben Johnson and
his family's life. Ben Johnson just signed a five year

(06:52):
contract worth thirteen million dollars a year. If you do
the math, you're talking sixty five plus million dollars. And
his kids will'll never not go to private schools. His
wife will never not drive a g wagon. I'm talking
if he gets fired, if his career just tumbles, moving forward,
he will be at the nicest country clubs eating dinner
moving forward. His life financially completely changed because of the Lions.

(07:17):
And I get it sucks losing. These guys are all
really competitive, but those guys change your life. And I
think and listen, I understand he's a tightly wound focused guy.
You can't for two seconds pretend to be like, hey man,
good game show a little sportsmanship of humans that you
know that you needed, that sent you on this trajectory

(07:38):
that you're at currently making a ton of money in
one of the highest paid coaches in the NFL and
don't even have a career win under your belt. Not
all his fault. He didn't build this roster together. Ryan Poles,
who I think we have to acknowledge is one of
the worst gms. But here's the thing I'll never forget.
When I was doing local radio and Jim tom Sula
was the head coach of the forty nine ers and

(08:00):
they actually weren't record wise as bad as you think.
If you just had what was Jim tom Sulla's record
as a head coach, someone'd be like one in fifteen two,
you know, the only played sixteen games at two and fourteen.
He won five. Now, one of the games he lost
was to the Cleveland Browns, who had Mike Petton who

(08:20):
was their coach at the time, and the Niners. I'm
pretty sure they played him in Cleveland. Cleveland wasn't good
and they beat him. And Peden said after, He's like,
you know, everyone keeps a acting like our franchisees and shambles.
Our house is on fire, and they kind of were
at the time. What do we think about them? I mean,
we just beat them. Let's point the finger at that operation.

(08:41):
He was right, and the Cowboys polarizing organization. They got
lucky that the Giants Defenders have absolutely no clue what
they're doing when it came to just trying to make
sure that Ferguson can't just run down the scene and
put this guy that can kick seventy yard field goals
and give him the opportunity to have a tempt so
like the guy. I to understand, the Cowboys are one

(09:03):
and one. They probably should have lost that game, right,
so you get eber Flus rolling in. This thing could
get really ugly really fast, and obviously it already is bad.
But I said this about Ben Johnson coming in, is
that there is no training ground to be the headman, right.
You understand offense. You gain the experience of dealing with

(09:26):
different players throughout your assistant coaching career as a position
coach and as a coordinator, but you never have everyone
start talking to you about like why is this guy
not getting the touches? Why is this guy inactive on
game day? Why are you looking at this guy weird?
What's going on with your entire team, what's going on
with your relationship with the gentleman? The questions you get

(09:46):
asked as the headman, whether they're true or not, are
completely different. And then obviously, as things happen it's like, well,
would you guys be open to trading players? You don't
ask coordinators that because you know it's not their call. Well,
when it comes down to Ben Johnson, like, do you
see your relationship with Ryan Poles being something you guys
can work through when you're one in eight and I

(10:09):
think the Bears are staring disaster in the face and
if they want to get this thing just somewhat credible
to me, this is a must win game. And you
get the Cowboys that kind of come in no pressure
now and can just sling that thing around. So Dennis
Allen that defense, Ben Johnson, this game is gonna be fascinating.

(10:29):
And obviously a main reason for that is Tom Brady.
And obviously Tom Brady has become a talking point after
he was seen in the coaching box and I saw
Ben Johnson actually was asked today about that situation of
talking to Tom throughout the week, you know, being that
he's calling the game, and he didn't think it was
that big a deal. Now they're friends. And remember one

(10:50):
of the reasons that he interviewed with the Raiders was
because Tom personally called him and asked he wasn't even
going to give them the time of day, so he
extremely high Tom, just as most I'm sure offensive coordinators,
head coaches that are offensive coordinators, offensive personnel in the
league like not just like Tom Revere him want to

(11:10):
be friends with him because they want to talk offensive football.
But Tom Brady's kind of getting I saw Portnoy today
say that Tom Brady, that Saudi situation he's doing with
the flag football is being paid seventy five million dollars
to be the all time quarterback in this Sadi. I
don't know flag football operation. Unless I said this about

(11:32):
liv back when it happened before they bought ad space.
I was never that emotionally like this guy's a loser
for taking the money. It's easy for you to say
if you were Bryce and d Chambeau, Phil Mickelson, Brooks
Kopkar DJ and they're throwing one hundred and fifty two
hundred million dollars in front of your face, It's like, yeah,
let's see your morals now. It's easy to talk from
your couch eating a bag of cheetos. You know, Tom

(11:55):
Brady taking seventy five millions for Sadi's A lot of
people are gonna have different takes about the moral stances,
like you've never been offered seventy five million dollars for
you know, three games of all time quarterback. I mean,
it's it's gonna be the easiest money he's ever made.
But I've heard a lot of people say, like, why
is he so aggressively now doing stuff that he never

(12:17):
did in the past. Like Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods.
They don't put themselves out there like Tom Bradys, And
it kind of hit me this morning. They don't have
to because Michael Jordan got whether it's because of his mom, whatever,
the real story is in the negotiation when it came
to the Jordan brand got points in the deal, which

(12:40):
has obviously made him a billionaire several times over. He
made one of the smartest contracts off the court in
the history of sports, getting revenue from his brand. Tiger
Woods for about a ten year period in the two
thousands was making seventy to ninety million dollars off the course.

(13:03):
He is also currently a billionaire. Both those guys. Obviously
Michael had the revenue. Tiger never owned his Nike contract right,
Nike just paid him. He didn't own Buick, he didn't
own all these people he was doing deals with, but
his brand was so lucrative. He made an extreme amount
of money. And those guys now can say no to

(13:25):
countless things. If Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods really wanted
to get aggressive and buy part of an NFL team,
even if it was five to ten percent, they have
way more money than Tom. Never forget Tom took discounts
for years with the Patriots. I bet if we did
a did a deep research on it, probably average fifteen

(13:49):
to twenty percent of a year for fifteen plus years.
When it came to his Patriot contracts, the other thing
he did it was a lot different than say his
here Peyton Manning. It doesn't feel like in the prime
of his career he was aggressive with commercials. You turn
on the television now, Josh Allen, Patrick mahomes Hell, going

(14:10):
back to Baker Mayfield when he first got in the league,
the top quarterbacks are everywhere on television. Remember that first
game against Ohio State and Arch Manning's first start, He
had more commercials than touchdowns. He was on like three
different ads. So, like Tom Brady, you could argue was
much more focused on the field during his career than

(14:31):
he was about financially maximizing every penny. Now, he was
still a worth hundreds of millions of dollars in doing fine.
But when Tom's career ended, he wants to own an
NFL team. And if you look around at the price
points for owning an NFL team, look at the guy's
getting involved. It's like David Tepper, one of the greatest
stock traders in the history of the world. Look at

(14:52):
the owners just in general in sports, some of these
new guys ballmer. I mean, they have an ungodly amount
of money. And Tom Brady is not on that level.
I mean, neither is Peyton Manning. So if they want
in on that space, they have to be ultra aggressive.
And he got very lucky that Mark Davis reached out
to him. This according to Mark Davis, I told him

(15:15):
I wanted in on the deal. But remember he was
going to give him a sweetheart deal. The league said no, no, no,
we can't have that. Whatever percentage you give him has
to be based on the market value. Well, Mark Davis
does not have children, so when he dies, I don't
exactly know how his trust in that situation will go down.
There is not you know, Al Davis Junior at forty

(15:37):
years old that is primed to take over the team.
Like when you go around the Dallas Cowboys, he has
sons who are taken over. Jeffrey Lurry has Julian Lurry
who's going to take over the team. You just look
around the league. There is typically the Ursay Doughters. There
are people that are going to take it from their
fathers that keep it in the family. This is a

(15:57):
family business. Even though these are billion dollar operations. The
Raiders do not have that. So Tom clearly, if he
looks around the league, he goes, this is my best opportunity,
one I'm already in. You'd be like, of course, the
best opportunity where else we have seen before some of
these guys be minority owners and other teams Jimmy Haslam,
David Tepper, and then get the opportunity to buy other teams.

(16:19):
So there are guys that are currently you don't know
as well, who own a small percentage of this team,
that team, the next team that go Hey, if there's
ever an opportunity to buy, I want an opportunity to bid,
and I'm sure have more money than Tom. So you
could argue that Tom, if he wants to one day
take over one of these operations. He needs to be

(16:41):
a whore when it comes to doing these deals, because
that's currently what he is and he can't. It's like,
why would Tom waste his weekends flying around I get
three hundred and seventy five million? He needs the money, right,
Why would Tom take seventy five million dollars even if
it's the easiest money he'll ever make, like with the
Sadi's because that money matters. And I just think, like

(17:01):
comparing him to MJ and Tiger, they're not comparables. Tiger,
you could argue in like the heat and the peak
of his career when he was winning the most was
as big of a business horror as you've ever seen.
He was on every ad, it was crazy, and he
maximized his earning power. And like I said, I just
think Jordan's deal is not really comparable to any athlete ever.

(17:25):
So I think when you it's easy to be critical
of Tom for doing all this stuff because it doesn't
feel like it's like what's he doing? Like why is
he doing all this stuff? I think it's to accumulate
as much money possible to ultimately be the lead dog
with the Raiders, and you already see like Mark Davis,
let him do whatever he wants, but it's it'd be

(17:46):
completely different if like, not only can I do whatever
I want, I'm the majority or I own a large
percentage of this team and I'm out front, like I'm
making all the decisions. So I think that is his
end game. Okay. Today's show is brought to you by
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(18:09):
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Thursday Night football is happening AFC East. The Dolphins going
to the Bills. I like the Bills big, not only
to cover the spread, but every prop. When it comes

(18:30):
to Josh Allen, I think he goes nuts, throws several touchdowns,
runs for a touchdown. I like to have a massive
game and dominate the Dolphins. We got big time college
football coming up. I do like a couple underdogs. I
do think Auburn, who played Oklahoma really well last year,
is gonna be feisty in this game. I also think
Texas Tech against Utah, I think you toss pretty good,

(18:52):
but Texas Tech had a bunch of guys come in
to transfer portal. They've spent a lot of money on
this team, as well as TWU Lane against Ole Miss.
I like those underdogs to keep it frisky. Hard Rock
Bet has a new promos every day. This week's there's
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Thursday night profit boost, a Friday college profit boost, another

(19:12):
profit boost, Saturday's college games, plus NFL Sunday like the
Steelers big that weekend, and Monday Night kind of like
the Lions. Let's get it on a couple other NFL stories.
Khalil Mack, it was reported today by Pelisarro and rap

(19:33):
Sheet that his dislocation of his not season ending potentially
could just be several weeks. They put him on that
short term IR so they can bring him back in
four weeks. That is big because I saw Coward today,
Carl Harbaugh, the greatest coach of all time, and he
actually made a pretty compelling point. Like Belichick, Andy Lombardi.

(19:56):
These guys dominating the pros, Sabin Urban, me or whoever
dominated in college. We have never seen a guy go
back and forth, even Pete Carroll, Right, Pete Carroll went
to the NFL, got run out of the NFL, went
to USC, and then went to Seattle. But it's like
Jim Harball was in college, then went to the pros,

(20:17):
then went back to college. Now he's back in the Pros.
It'd be like if Pete, instead of getting the Raiders job,
had jumped back to let's say USC, or just even
another school and one again. Right, it's pretty crazy what
he's doing, especially if he ends up winning a Super Bowl.
I don't know if he's the greatest coach of all time.
He definitely is on the short list when you factor
in college though. And this team is really, really good,

(20:39):
and they have an MVP level quarterback who's playing at
a really high level. Their offense is loaded, but there's
no replacing this guy, you know, he's just they talked
about on the broadcast his leadership. To me, it's the
play like this guy is still a high end run
stuffing guy on the front. He sets the edge and
his pass rush ability might not be like peak Khalil Mack,

(21:01):
but it's still pretty freaking good. There's a reason I
think they gave him what seventeen eighteen million dollars this offseason,
and he's a really good player. If you want to
win a Super Bowl, I do think you need this guy.
And the only reason I was a little apprehensive after
the game talking about the Chargers big picture, it's like
if he just ripped up his arm and is out
for the season, that is a big blow. I know

(21:22):
they got around it in one game against Geno Smith.
It's a different animal when you're playing Lamar Jackson or
Josh Allen or Mahomes in a playoff game, So getting
them back I think he got to be pretty bullish
on the Chargers. Mahomes turned thirty years old today. I'm
always fascinated with guys that have Like if Scotti Scheffler's
career ended today, he had like one of the greatest

(21:44):
careers we've ever seen. If mahomes career ended today, it's
like in his twenties, he went to five Super Bowls.
He never didn't go to the AFC Championship Game. He
won multiple MVPs, he took down some of the greatest,
you know, players of his era. You could argue, you know,
neutralize their career path. I mean, if it wasn't for

(22:06):
Patrick Mahomes, do Lamar or specifically Josh have a couple
of Super Bowls?

Speaker 3 (22:10):
Right?

Speaker 2 (22:11):
Do the Eagles have two? Right? Does Kyle Shanahan have one?

Speaker 3 (22:14):
Like?

Speaker 2 (22:15):
He altered the trajectory of the National Football League. Think
of what his impact was on Andy Reid. It wasn't
that long ago where people like, you know, Andy can't
win the Big One, which is kind of stupid when
you really think about it. But he went from not
being able to win the Big One to being one
of the greatest coaches we've ever seen. So props to Mahomes,

(22:35):
who just had a pretty incredible twenties. Now the likelihood
that he can continue this obviously this year has been
a little rocky, but even let's say they go ten
and seven and they get bounced in the first round.
Just big picture, like, what's you're over under on how
many more Super Bowls Patrick Mahomes gets to. I would

(22:56):
say this, it's got to be at least one because
he has a great coach, they have a good infrastructure.
They are gonna need to replace some players, right, I
feel pretty confidence saying this will be Travis Kelsey's last
year in the NFL, Like they are going to need
a key offensive weapons, specifically a tight end. And Chris Jones,

(23:17):
Like how many big time years does he have left?
So they're gonna need another big time defensive lineman and
they're never gonna be really shitty, So how are they
going to replace these guys? Luckily they have a GM
and a coach that have made some incredible moves over
the years. But if he's gonna have his you know,
like when Peyton went to Denver. Obviously Mahomes isn't chain

(23:38):
of teams, but I would say that the parallel would
be Brady and that Gorenkowski, Edelman, mccordy, high Tower, some
of those guys. It's just gonna be out of his
control and it's gonna be a lot of pressure on
Beach to get a lot of things right moving forward.

(23:59):
But I would not bet against the Chiefs big picture,
even if this year is quote unquote underwhelming, you know,
for their what their expectations. And last but not least
is Jordan Mylotta had some comments about he thought it
was disrespectful saying the Eagles won that game because of
the Tush push, And I don't totally disagree, but I

(24:22):
I do think the Eagles probably. It feels like in
a short period of time, like the way people were
talking about the Chiefs, people are just like, I'm just
tired of the Chiefs. I'm just tired of the Chiefs.
It happens in basketball sometimes, like can anyone else win
beside Lebron or Curry? Like, and I get it, like
if you're not a fan of one of these specific
teams or this specific player, even if you like the sport,

(24:43):
you're like, can we just get something new? And then
you get something new? And I like see the ratings like,
well I gave you the Oklahoma City Thunder. Why aren't
you watching?

Speaker 3 (24:50):
Right?

Speaker 2 (24:50):
I mean, there's there's something to be said. It's like
can anyone win beside the Yankees? I remember thinking that
when I was a kid. It's like then the Yankees disappeared,
and you get like the Marlins. It's like, people, aren't
this world series fellas Marlins? Or like Diamondbacks versus the
Rockies versus White Sox. It's like sometimes you got it
pretty good. But I do think the Eagles quickly or

(25:12):
like a lot of people are gonna start rooting against them,
and the tush push is just one of those. It's
probably the most polarizing play of all time because you
could be like the wild cat is gonna take over
the league. We've had situations like that, the spread offense,
the pistol. This is just one specific play that only
one team can run and they we know it's inevitable,
and people are just rooting against them, and then it

(25:34):
brings into Jalen Hurts. It's like this guy just won
the Super Bowl, has played fantastic in two Super Bowls, obviously,
has had some huge moments in his short career. Wally
pipped in the blink of an e Carson Wentz and
took the Eagles to another level, and people's like, is
he good? And I looked at hey, like, how many

(25:54):
yards does he after two games? Obviously he didn't have
many yards against the Chiefs because Chris Jones, you know,
he has two hundred and fifty yards passing in two games.
He has no passing touchdowns. Now, granted he has three
on the ground, obviously a couple toush pushes, But I
just think people are gonna start rooting against them, and
last year or last couple of years, the big domb
thing they've kind of been fun. They have this you

(26:16):
know GM, but you got Siriani. I saw him doing
this thing like singing eminem on the way to the
locker room. I just think that they might just jump
the chiefs of someone that everyone is just gonna root
against beside Eagles fans, and Eagles fans are gonna eat
this up because they naturally have a chip on their shoulder.
We're finally good, the defending champs, and everyone's talking about us.

(26:38):
This is a big weekend because I think the Rams.
If you're not an Eagles fan, everyone's rooting for the Rams.
And obviously the Rams were right there last year. If
they could somehow corral Jalen, who had a you know,
awesome run that opened up the game against him and
it's just a threat on the ground, can just corral
him a little bit and make him beat you with
his arm. So far this season, he hasn't proven that.

(26:59):
And the crazy thing about despite being two to zero
defending champs, a little undercurrent. I saw like a reddit board,
I saw some comments there was something the Eagles put
out in the comments on Instagram, the offensive coordinator better
get some passing yards and some passing touchdowns here really soon,
or people are gonna get grapchy so that there's always

(27:20):
something bubbling even when times are good. In Philly, I
not only have worked there, but I follow that team
really closely, and I can already see the offensive coordinator
being a little under fire being asked some questions. Not
like he's gonna get fire in the middle of the year,
but it's just it's one of those things. They can
never quite be too happy. And I think that game
it's it's it's a big one for the Rams, you

(27:43):
know the Eagles. The other thing, looking at the Eagles schedule,
even if they were to win this, their schedules is
really hard, so you know, and you look at the
Green Bay Packers, you look at the Rams. I mean,
getting the one seed in both conferences, it's just really
important given that there's only one team that gets a
buy now, and we know as the season drags on
that that buy is. I don't even think we talk

(28:05):
about it enough because we're just so accustomed for so
long that it's like, hey, just one of the top
two seeds. You get a breather. That's that's a big
difference getting that, you know, two seed, It's like, well,
you gotta play sometimes you gotta play like Sunday night.
You gotta play a good opponent. It's not necessarily easy.
So fascinating to watch the the conversation around the Philadelphia Eagles.

(28:41):
Very excited, fired up. This man is, you know, been
up well before me and I feel like I got
up pretty early this morning. Chicago native, New York resident.
You can find him on Good Morning Football and everywhere.
Kyle Bryant, what's up, bro?

Speaker 1 (28:56):
You man John, I'm thrilled to be here. I'm a
fan of yours, follow yours. I'm thrilled to see that
you have the real tasteful lighting and the really expensive
looking microphone. You're technologically savvy and your content's great. And
thanks for having me.

Speaker 2 (29:10):
No, you know, coward and the volume had to send
some people out because I would I would have had
the USB MIC, I would have had a Logy tech camera,
you know, I get for sure. You know, actually I
had never I've been to most major cities in America,
but I had never been to Chicago. And probably you know,

(29:30):
a week into training camp, I went out. I actually
got to stay at uh stay with Colin and in
the suburbs. The place is beautiful, man, I mean, what
what a what a beautiful I know it gets a
little cold in the winter, and I listen, I'm an
Arizona guy. I like my heat. But Chicago, I get it,
like I I understand it because we're he's showing me place.
I'm like, this place badass, and then he's showing me

(29:52):
the prices, you know, and I'm like, this is way
cheaper coming. I lived in California for a long time,
even Scottsdale. I'm like, you, guys, it's just it's not
very We had a nice dinner. It was like one
hundred bucks. I'm like, this is Midwest living.

Speaker 1 (30:04):
I know it's a sad commentary when you moved to Chicago,
of all places, and it's cheaper where you live, But
I totally get it.

Speaker 3 (30:11):
I grew up there.

Speaker 1 (30:11):
Like the magic of Chicago for me was always I
grew up in the North suburbs where the Bears facility is,
and it's where all of those eighties movies were shot,
like Ferris Bueller and Breakfast Club and Weird Science and
all those John Hughes movies.

Speaker 3 (30:23):
I'm Home Alone, plains, trains and automobiles.

Speaker 1 (30:26):
So like I lived in those actual towns where those
characters were from.

Speaker 3 (30:29):
And then if you go in the city, it's beautiful too.

Speaker 1 (30:31):
The only problem with Chicago is the city is that
when it comes to professional football, they suck.

Speaker 3 (30:36):
But other than that, like they've got a lot going
for them.

Speaker 2 (30:40):
Yeah, I want to dive into the bears. You know
what's funny is over my wife speaking about Home Alone,
My wife showed me this video. At the hotel in
New York, you can get the ice cream Sunday order
that McAuley culkin ordered, and it's Do you know how
much money it costs?

Speaker 3 (30:56):
No?

Speaker 1 (30:56):
I know that the McAllister family had big money, but
I don't know the This is the Sunday at the
Plaza Hotel in Manhattan.

Speaker 2 (31:03):
This is the ice cream. Now they've done it up.
They've added you know, it's like eighteen scoops but all
the you know, it comes with hot carmel, but it
could feed it could feed a staff.

Speaker 3 (31:13):
What's the price?

Speaker 2 (31:14):
Four hundred and fifty dollars.

Speaker 1 (31:16):
Oh my gosh, I was gonna bet two hundred bucks
for a Sunday four point fifty and you can get
the McAllister Sunday. Tim Curry doesn't bring it to unfortunately,
but I mean I would throw down with that.

Speaker 3 (31:27):
Here's a fun thing about that hotel.

Speaker 1 (31:29):
In the scene and Home Alone two, Kevin McAllister like
jumps into the pool and like loses his bathing suit.

Speaker 3 (31:34):
It's a funny moment.

Speaker 1 (31:36):
There is no pool at the Plaza and that was
shot in downtown Chicago, like they in a different hotel. Like,
I know all about that stuff. You know me, I
know stupid nonsense from the nineties. That's my wheelhouse.

Speaker 2 (31:45):
You know what's funny is you're a couple years older
than me, But I I anyone. I was born in
the mid eighties, you know, from Sylvester Sloan to Arnold
to My two favorite movies as a kid, by far
were The Rock and con Air and the action movies.
You know, my wife she's not as into it. I'm like, hey,
you want to watch Demolition Man. She's like, what is
this I have? And we're watching and I was thinking

(32:08):
last night, we're watching the show Task. It's on HBO.
It's actually pretty good through too, but like the the
action movie and definitely the action star feels kind of dead.
I mean, it definitely peaked in that group of guys
that were just it just doesn't feel like it's ever
coming back. You could argue, and I've always said this
about like fame, like Michael Jackson or Michael Jordan or

(32:29):
you know, even go Elvis Presley pre Internet fame is
a different level than whatever we got going on now,
which listen, I mean, I built businesses based on the Internet,
so I'm not anti the Internet, but it's a little
different world. And I kind of miss those days of
just like when the Rock would come out and you
knew every single human being you knew was gonna try
to see that thing.

Speaker 1 (32:49):
I know, and I listen, I was thinking about this
yesterday when we found out that Robert Redford died. Is
that like there was a time when when a stallone
movie came out or a Switched Nagger movie that everyone
just you went to the theater.

Speaker 3 (33:03):
There was no conversation about it. You were going to
see it.

Speaker 1 (33:05):
And like the movie stars and the action stars, they
weren't showing up in like TV shows.

Speaker 3 (33:10):
There certainly weren't being in commercials. There was no Internet.

Speaker 1 (33:12):
It was just once a year you would drive to
the movie theater and pay eight to nine ten bucks
to see that movie star, and then you'll see him
again a year from now. It's not like you know
action movies now, John, It's like I could go on
any of the streamers and there's like fifty different kind
of okay movies where like I don't know, Chris Hemsworth
is like kicking ass or something, or anybody I don't
even know who it.

Speaker 3 (33:32):
Is, and they're fine. Just doesn't it just doesn't have
that same charm. And I missed that day. Those days
a lot.

Speaker 2 (33:39):
I even think about. You know, you worked for Jim Rome. Yeah,
and you know I was born and raised in northern California,
so obviously Rome hit it big. But on the West coast,
what's up, John, I're doing?

Speaker 3 (33:50):
Man?

Speaker 2 (33:50):
There was nothing like it. So you know someone in
the late nineties, early two thousands now and back then
he was talking a lot of baseball. But I just
remember this guy talked sports for three hours, just talking shit.
And you'd have like Mark Grayson, and you'd even have
like Steve Elkington was an incredible golf guest, way ahead
of its time. And I did I had no clue
what he looked like, you know. And I used to

(34:11):
listen to Love Line with Corolla and Doctor Druid. That
was just a legendary ahead of its time show. But
you had no clue what these human beings look I
can't imagine listening to someone right now and not googling
them immediately and knowing their entire life story. Just it
just was a simpler time.

Speaker 1 (34:26):
You know, it truly was, and you just driving your
car and listen. I was a big obviously, Rome was
a huge, huge deal to me and it means a
lot to me. But the Love Line thing was, you
would I remember listening to my car and it would
be like some girl would call up and she's like, well,
you know, I've been cutting myself because my boyfriend won't
talk to me. And then Corolla would always go, okay,

(34:47):
perfectly normal, perfectly healthy, and we'd laugh about it.

Speaker 3 (34:50):
I missed Love Line so much.

Speaker 2 (34:51):
Well, they'd have them like porn stars. You're like, like,
look around, make sure my mom wasn't walking around the
corner a ten o'clock at night. Uh, really quick? Good
morning football?

Speaker 3 (35:01):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (35:02):
I tried attempted to do some fill in local radio
morning show. And I remember thinking, like this is not
for me, not that I'm not a morning person, but
when you're in the entertainment business, whether TV rate, you
got to be peaking. When that light comes on at
six am, you know you've been doing it. Now what for?
I mean almost going on a decade, right, this is
my tight season, So you ever get used to it?

(35:25):
You know, what time does the alarm clock go off?
Your schedule of eating, working out, your family. I mean,
that's nuts.

Speaker 3 (35:31):
It's a good question.

Speaker 1 (35:32):
When we started in twenty sixteen, I was getting up.
I remember I would set the alarm for four to
twelve am, not four, not four fifteen, because like I
needed those extra twelve minutes of sleep, But if I
set it for like four fifteen, like I needed the
three minutes to get ready, it was that that crazy.

Speaker 3 (35:50):
And now like now I wake up significantly later. Now
it's still before six.

Speaker 1 (35:54):
But back then I would have to get up and
like prepare for two hours to do the show. Like
I would sit there for two hours and think of
what I was going to say. And now I can
really kind of improv the stuff. But it is a lifestyle,
and you know, I'm at the point and John, you
understand this, like where I will get messages online or
just people who I meet in the street who were like,
I'm young and I want to get into media, and

(36:15):
I had opinions about sports like what should I do?

Speaker 3 (36:18):
How can you help me? And what I always say
is just energy is.

Speaker 1 (36:24):
Something people are always looking for, like the higher ups
or the suits or the decision makers.

Speaker 3 (36:29):
Energy is such an underrated asset.

Speaker 1 (36:32):
You can take all of the knowledge, you can be telegenic,
you can be creative. If you go before behind a
microphone or camera and your low energy, it doesn't work.
It's very difficult to be low energy and work. Whereas
my thing when I started on camera, I wasn't very
good at the time and I didn't have a ton
to say, but damn man, I had high energy and

(36:54):
you could you could feel it when I came out.
So if you're starting off energy, if they're in it
is they're trying to hire somebody for a talk show
or a podcast between you and somebody else.

Speaker 3 (37:03):
That other person might be brilliant.

Speaker 1 (37:06):
And so insightful, but if you out energy them, it
is really an equalizer. So bring it and in a
morning show like you have no choice. You can't be
born in a morning show.

Speaker 2 (37:15):
Do you have to think about Obviously, you know you're
under the NFL umbrella. And I was watching you on
Dan Patrick probably a couple of weeks ago, when you
were talking like you've been critical, and I agree with
you on the Tomlin thing of the Andy Reid kind
of parallel. I think, sure, you know, if he became available,
he'd be the number one candidate for whoever needed a gig.
So it's not like people saying he needs a fresh
start means he stinks. He would immediately get a gig

(37:38):
and probably have a lot of success. But when you
broach those topics you got to you're on in probably
every building, a ton of gms, a lot of owners,
any sort of You've been doing it long enough now
to kind of know where you can and can't go. Probably,
But have you had some incidents where people have reached
out and said, like, bro, that's not gonna fly.

Speaker 1 (37:57):
It's a really good question, and I have a really
simple answer. And I have done almost ten years and
over two thousand episodes of Good Morning Football on the
NFL's media branch, and not a single time have I
been told don't talk about this. Stay away from this.
They really really let me and let us do a show.

(38:20):
I don't have directives where they don't stay away from
officiating on this.

Speaker 3 (38:23):
Don't show this, don't show this. I'm telling you you
know how.

Speaker 1 (38:26):
I know that because in twenty sixteen, when we started
the whole point of the show, John was like, hey,
all right, let's get some mourning energy and some fun
and the positivity of football.

Speaker 3 (38:36):
And it's fun, fun, fun, fun fun.

Speaker 1 (38:38):
And ten minutes into our first season, Colin Kaepernick takes
a knee and it's all anybody was talking about. So
we were baptized by that and Trump those sobs calling
them and freedom and First Amendment.

Speaker 3 (38:51):
It was like it was very important, but it was
not terribly fun.

Speaker 1 (38:54):
And since then, I mean, we've been through anything you
can think of, from Deshaun Watson to all kinds of
you know, concussion research and prevention, the things that are
really really important topics and polarizing times.

Speaker 3 (39:06):
We talk about all of it.

Speaker 1 (39:08):
And I promise you I've never even so much have
gotten an email saying, hey, we don't really like the
direction you went on.

Speaker 3 (39:14):
That it's incredible. I promise it's true.

Speaker 2 (39:16):
Well, let's hit on a topic, because I totally understand
if I'm Tom Brady and Mark Davis reaches out like
you want to own a piece. Oh yeah, I mean
it's a tough country club to get involved in. Totally
understand when Fox reaches out. When Tom I'm pretty sure
was still playing, Hey, you want about four hundred million
dollars to call games with Kevin Burkhart, I probably would
have said yes too. So both those two things, no
one blames them for being involved. I do think for

(39:39):
the first time, if I'm Andy Reid in my office
or Sean Payton in my office and I looked up
on that Monday night game where I'm sure in their
offices that game was going and see Tom with a
headset their division specifically got a little uncomfortable, even though
nothing actually changed. We knew that he was a part owner,
we knew that he's involved the spy tech talks about
all the time they talk. We know he's calling these games,

(40:01):
but that visual Sometimes I believe optics can be pretty overrated.
That word, but that wasn't optics where if I'm the
Chiefs or the Broncos, you might not be my competition.
In twenty twenty five, But that was one of those
things where it's like, whoa, guys, this somethings. I don't
know what's gotta change, but this makes me uncomfortable it.

Speaker 3 (40:22):
I have so many different responses.

Speaker 1 (40:24):
The first one is like, all right, so Brady's involved,
and he's got the headset on and he's the greatest
football mind ever, He's the greatest quarterback ever.

Speaker 3 (40:31):
First of all, why does the Raiders' offense suck? Then?

Speaker 1 (40:33):
Why is it so terrible? They're in the home opener
and they can't even score a touchdown?

Speaker 3 (40:37):
What is he keepn providing to the Raiders? Whatever he's
getting from the.

Speaker 1 (40:40):
Other teams isn't meaning anything because the Raiders look awful.
The second reason that everyone has such a visceral reaction
to this is because we're back at that old classic
of Tom.

Speaker 3 (40:52):
Brady and impropriety. I mean, we rode that thing for
a decade.

Speaker 1 (40:57):
That inflated football is a spy gate, Like that was
all the stuff that cooked for a while.

Speaker 3 (41:01):
And I've seen people being like, he's at it again.
This is the Brady model. Make it a gate.

Speaker 1 (41:07):
Just slap the word gate on anything Brady does and
we'll run with it.

Speaker 3 (41:12):
My last response is you mentioned some.

Speaker 1 (41:14):
People like Andy Reid or whoever it may be around
around the world, and they talk about these production meetings
where that you meet with Tom Brady apparently remotely only
because he's not allowed in. If someone has a problem
with this, then make a power move and say to
the network, I will not allow Tom Brady to be
in this meeting, and I'm not comfortable with it. I
don't think it's appropriate. Go ahead and say it. Make

(41:36):
a stance. You may even get end up getting fined
or whatever, but it would stand for what everyone is
talking about, or screw it, you don't really care. And
I think Brady's just sitting there listen, I'm not really
don't really have anything to hide.

Speaker 2 (41:48):
Yeah, it's a good point. I have a hard time
seeing anyone probably draw that line, because last time I checked,
these networks pay a lot of money. So, uh, you know,
one thing I wrote down that's probably riding your wheelhouse.
So let's use this analogy. Mayfield, he's kind of like
a childhood actor, you know, when you just a star
in college, Heisman Trophy and just on the scene. Lincoln Riley, Baker, Mayfield,
all these other NFL starf people forget Ceedee Lamb, Hollywood Brown,

(42:11):
Joe Mixon. I mean, his teams were stacked and he
was the leader. Then he gets to the NFL disaster
kind of like having a drug problem or something. Just like, whoa,
this is great. I love now he is. Now he
is resurrect. I just watched the Charlie Sheendock, which is
quite the wild ride. Yeah, and then now Baker Mayfield
is just you can't take your eyes off him. I mean,

(42:32):
he's he's kind of got. I mean we compared Mahomes
to like the Curry Farv. Baker's always had a little
bit of that to him, and you know, it definitely
disappeared in Cleveland and obviously Carolina. It feels like it's
a little back you know that far Van just kind
of electric lights are on and it's fun. I don't
know what to say besides Tampa's on, Baker's on. You

(42:55):
gotta watch because it's.

Speaker 1 (42:56):
Been a career so many things that you just said there.
I thought the perfect word is Farvian. And I know
that Brett Farv has taken a lot of hits over
the last few years, and much to his own doing,
And it's fine but like it's it's probably the most
watchable NFL quarterback in NFL history. Like if you were
back then in the nineties, like no one could take
their eyes off far. It was pure charisma, it was

(43:17):
all fun, it was all positive.

Speaker 3 (43:19):
And Baker has that going on to child star analogy.

Speaker 1 (43:23):
Baker's now like the one who made it though, like
Baker's Jody Foster or Baker's Elijah Wood or Daniel Radcliffe,
Like they are respected and they are on their own
two feet and they're still.

Speaker 3 (43:34):
Doing amazing work even though they were a child star.

Speaker 1 (43:37):
My Baker story is, for the last two years, I
worked like the Pro Bowl games. Okay, so people want
to roll their eyes about the Pro Bowl. It's a
really fun event to go to. I go down to Orlando,
I take my son and we just mess around. And
this year we stayed in the player's hotel. I took
my son out to Orlando. We went to every single
goat kart, batting cage, video, arcade place. Orlando is just

(43:59):
a series of attractions lined up next to each other.
We get back to the hotel kind of late. It's
the night before the Big Games. The next day, big
lobby bar loaded with people. I don't see any players
except for one who is Baker Mayfield physically forcing people
to put.

Speaker 3 (44:16):
Things on his tab. I got that drink, I got
that drink.

Speaker 1 (44:19):
Pick up their drink, pick up theirs too, not even
like his teammates, just people around the bar.

Speaker 3 (44:25):
Next morning, we gotta get up early for breakfast. Baker
is in the breakfast restaurant at.

Speaker 1 (44:30):
The hotel, working the tables like he's a groom at
a wedding. And by working, I mean meeting kids, signing hats.
Comes to my say, but oh, is this your son?
How you doing? I'm Baker. I'm not naive about this.
I've been around athletes.

Speaker 3 (44:43):
All the time.

Speaker 1 (44:44):
I have never seen someone hit it that hard at night,
work the crowd, and then the next morning is like
the President's and it's totally authentic.

Speaker 3 (44:52):
I loved it.

Speaker 1 (44:53):
There were no cameras rolling on and he just did it.
And I think that's what people are seeing on the field.

Speaker 2 (44:57):
You know, we talk a lot about during draft time
players and obviously tangible assets like Caleb's got a big arm,
or this guy can run really fast, this guy's really tall.
But I think the one cool part about like this
era of Mahomes Josh Lamar, I throw a burrow in there.
It looks like Herbert's really morphing into this is like
off the field, you know, you talk to Veach, you
talk to Andy, the way they talk about Mahomes back

(45:20):
he's thirty today, but like five six years ago when
he was younger, or obviously Josh or Lamar. How much
people gravitate towards the human being. And you know, it's
hard during the draft period because most human beings don't
know these guys. But like when these stories come out
of like, eh, something's a little awful with this guy
at quarterback, that's a I know you're a big Josh
Allen guy. Like that's a really big deal. And you know,

(45:42):
when I think about the two best quarterbacks really of
my adult life would be Peyton and obviously Tom. Tom's
knowns like the greatest teammate of all time, not the
greatest quarterback, but these guys that play with them. I
know people that played with Philip Rivers, they swear by
the guy or Matt Stafford, and I think that's a
defining attribute of these guys. Why these young players like
we'll see with Caleb'll see with JJ if they're gonna

(46:02):
be good enough. But that off the field can buy
you more time when it's like I love this guy.
I'm gonna see with JJ, Like, are they gonna splinter
on him? Well, if they like him enough, they will
give him a little bit of extra runway, even if
it's as rocky as a spin.

Speaker 1 (46:17):
Yeah, I mean listen, access to to franchise quarterbacks is
so interesting, even if it's ten to twelve minutes at
a time, which it usually is, just to watch how
they act and watch how they talk to people. Josh
Allen is a human labrador. He's so lovable, and he's
wags his tail the whole time, and he's got this
youthful energy.

Speaker 3 (46:34):
I'll tell you, John, the most interesting one I've ever
been around.

Speaker 1 (46:37):
And it was last week and I hung out with
Joe Burrow and I went to the Bengals facility.

Speaker 3 (46:41):
He's injured. Now.

Speaker 1 (46:42):
This was right before that Jaguars game. I flew to Cincinnati,
went in the stadium. Had never sat with Joe Burrow before,
but I sat with him for almost twenty minutes. And
I don't I've definitely never interviewed someone like him. I
don't think i've ever talked to someone like him in
any walk of life. He's straight up to me on camera.
He says, I have a hard time interacting with people sometimes,

(47:05):
like it's uncomfortable for me. And he says sometimes he
gets judged by the facial expressions he has or the
lack of emotion that he shows. And he is a
guy who I don't I think is kind of struggling
to be comfortable in his own skin. And he's like,
there's not a lot of people I can talk to
about it because no one kind of has this type
of life, Like who can I go to? You know,

(47:27):
I'm paraphrasing, But he's got the look and the fame
and the money and all that. I'm like, who do
you talk to? He's like, I'm friends with Kevin Durant.
I talk to him. I run into Brady sometimes and
I ask him advice. Odell helps me a lot, like
he feels like a guy who is not the Labrador,
but is trying really hard to be as professional as
he can.

Speaker 3 (47:47):
These guys are so so different, especially in a.

Speaker 1 (47:51):
Town like Buffalo, where you go to the grocery store
it's a national event, or Cincinnati.

Speaker 3 (47:56):
Even Burrow is beyond fascinating.

Speaker 1 (47:59):
I hate that he's injured now, but he is a
guy who is figuring out his way in life. I
don't think it comes naturally to him, but I think
he's making it work.

Speaker 2 (48:07):
Yeah, that situation, I mean just sucks as a as
a consumer. I mean, it's just like they're just a
fun team to watch. It's kind of the moment of
the backup quarterback. Right now, we're gonna get to Vice
your show. You sat with Kurt Warner, who kind of
fits in this. I mean, no one now he's even
more obscure than Jake Browning was a starter on a
playoff team in Washington, you know, I mean he was

(48:27):
a herald in high school player. Kurt Warner, not a
soul that loved football. Had ever heard of the guy
unless you were was it Northern Iowa or where the
hell he played? So it's like, you know, but this week,
you look, you got Jaden's injured, you got jj I
don't even I guess he was getting his ankle taped
during the game. But it kind of had a party
feel where you just assumed everything was good and then

(48:47):
all of a sudden, Monday morning guy comes out and
he's injured Mac Jones is playing. A lot of backups
are playing, which can we can handle for a week,
but you don't want to get to a spot where
you got Monday nights and Sunday nights and all of
a sudden, backups are littered about the league. It's it
makes me a little nervous because we're pretty early in
this thing to already be at this point. Right.

Speaker 3 (49:05):
Oh man, I'm so pissed off.

Speaker 1 (49:06):
This is my least favorite topic, but it's an important topic.

Speaker 3 (49:10):
I understand as an NFL fan.

Speaker 1 (49:12):
We're gonna get a Marcus Mariota game, Carson Wentz on
whatever team he's on this year game.

Speaker 3 (49:18):
It's fine.

Speaker 1 (49:19):
We have to get these things in week three. You
can't even give us a month of clean football.

Speaker 3 (49:24):
I hate it. I don't want to see Jake Browning.
I don't want to see Carson Wentz on the bike.
I don't.

Speaker 1 (49:29):
I'm not ashamed to say it. And here's my other
take on remember this. People lose their bleeping minds about
all these rules to protect quarterbacks, and this sucks. It's
not football. You can't get quarterbacks anymore. I will never
complain about those rules. I don't care if you can't
land on the quarterback anymore. I don't care that you
can't touch his head. I know it's annoying, but it's

(49:49):
not nearly as annoying as me watching Marcus Mariota start
for Jadon Daniels.

Speaker 3 (49:53):
I don't want to see that. I want those rules
in place.

Speaker 1 (49:56):
People are like, you gotta loose enough, the rules tighten them.
If anything, I want those guys out there. It ruins
our Sunday when they're not.

Speaker 3 (50:03):
That's my piece on it.

Speaker 2 (50:05):
How much toush push talk have you guys had this week?

Speaker 3 (50:08):
Huns, I can't get enough. I love talk.

Speaker 2 (50:12):
Okay, let's let's just let's just dive in. I mean
I forever I didn't necessarily care. Is kind of indifferent.
I respect it. Like they have this quarterback that can
squat the house. I don't think most other quarterbacks. There
was that play where Chris Jones jumps on him. He's
so strong. He took chrispher a ride to someone DM
me like, well, if the backup could function, I'm like,
I don't think Tanner McKee could have taken Chris Jones

(50:34):
for a ride. I think he stops right there. So
I think Jalen is a huge part of this. But
you play college football very successful running back. Correct part
of playing football is on any given play, whether it's
high school, whether it's the pros, you don't really it's unknown.
You don't know what's gonna happen, trick ration on any
given play. Something crazy can happen. A play you don't

(50:56):
know what the offense is called. This is the most
inevitable play. Even a quarterback sneak is one not inevitable, right,
you see in college all the time. College quarterbacks are
terrible at it, so they get stuffed. This is an inevitability.
And that's where I think that, like I understand people
pushing back, it's just kind of boring to watch. If
if ten teams could do this well, it would have
been banned a long time ago because it'd be it'd

(51:17):
just be boring to watch. Luckily, only one team, and
they did a good job campaigning against it. Yet Jason
Kelsey come in, Howie. They're good at they're smart guys
behind the Eagles curtain. But I do think that this
moment in time the Chiefs game was like this is
probably the last year before because we saw the momentum
last year in the offseason. I just think this is

(51:38):
a tough play to watch, even if they're doing their playing,
they're biding by the rules.

Speaker 3 (51:43):
Yeah, well I don't know if they are anymore. That's
that's where the record.

Speaker 2 (51:46):
Well they jumped, Yeah, you can't see.

Speaker 3 (51:49):
So I've got a long history of talking about this.

Speaker 1 (51:51):
And you use the word inevitability. It's pretty much an
inevitability for Philadelphia, it's not for everyone else. Buffalo ran
it a lot last year and they were stopped twice
in the title game running it. So it can be
done against Buffalo, I don't if it can against Philly.
My quick, rapid fire takedown of all the critiques of
the tush push are very similar.

Speaker 3 (52:11):
People say, oh, it's a dangerous play. It's nonsense.

Speaker 1 (52:13):
It's less dangerous than a conventional running play with a
running back up the middle because there's less impact. They say,
it's not football. Listen, we pushed as hard as we can.
You push as hard as we can. That sounds to
me like Princeton Rutgers back in the day, who had
invented football.

Speaker 3 (52:26):
I don't mind it at all. I have fought for
the tush push for a long time.

Speaker 1 (52:32):
I think it went someplace where I can't follow against
the chiefs because now half the line are all the
line is false starting. That's just blatantly against the rules.
Your helmet can't go and contact the chiefs before the
ball's even snapped. But it's such a cluster bleep in
there that the officials.

Speaker 3 (52:48):
Can't call it.

Speaker 1 (52:49):
So that was the moment, dude, where it's like, oh,
they're definitely banning this in the offseason.

Speaker 3 (52:55):
But again, there was only two games in. We got
four months of them running thing soil the wheels fall off.

Speaker 1 (53:01):
And listen, Siriani knows, like your kid who knows he's
gonna get grounded and lose his PlayStation, you are playing
the hell of that thing out before they take it away.
We're gonna see it a hundred times this year and
then they'll take it away.

Speaker 2 (53:12):
I think the thing with Josh is one Josh is
taller than Jalen, but it's got to be uncomfortable getting
as low as Jalen gets where he's natural and comfortable
doing it. Josh did the normal. Tom Brady succeeded forever
and he was tall too. Josh tries to go high,
but it doesn't work. You have to disappear, you know,
and and I don't think any quarterback to day, I'm
not disappearing into that thing. Jalen, for whatever reason, he

(53:34):
to me he's the only individual that could run it
at this clip, right unless someone just has the balls,
also the stature and the strength. He's just it's just
kind of a unique situation. Okay. Uh, I guess before
we get to buy the Bears, I mean they are.

Speaker 3 (53:50):
Going, we need advice. They need about fifty of them.

Speaker 1 (53:53):
They need to be strong and illegal and they need
to be narcotics to get through this season.

Speaker 3 (53:57):
My god, when I.

Speaker 2 (53:58):
Was when I was sitting there at Coward House, I'm like, this,
this area is just incredible, the intellege, Chicago's downtown, the Lakes,
the suburbs, you guys got it all. And then he's
shown me on the map, I'm like, oh that that
little place up there. Green Bay has been kicking your
ass for decades. And there's not a soul in America
if they could choose, like, hey, would you rather live
in the suburbs of Green Bay or I mean suburbs

(54:19):
of Chicago or go to live in Green Bay? Obviously
there's an inferiority complex of how is this happening to us?
And it's not even fair? And now the Packers if
it was college football cow through two weeks. I mean,
I don't think anyone would hesitate or be question I
was putting the Packers number one, right. They look they've
already been good and now they look extra good. And

(54:41):
the Bears it's been pretty bad. I mean, you get
a fifty burger put on you in the NFL again,
Lions at home. Gof's good you watching them play. It's like,
of course they got better players than you. It's not
even that crazy. But this does feel a little rocky early.
The quarterback situation, the articles, just a lot going on,
and it kind of feels like it's just the same
thing over again.

Speaker 3 (55:01):
It's absurd.

Speaker 1 (55:02):
I can't believe we're having this conversation. But I can
speak on it, don because I grew up in the
Chicago area. But I also from my old child that
I would spend summers in Wisconsin. Door County, Wisconsin. We
have North or Lakes and Eave, Wisconsin. I have so
much love for Wisconsin. And they have said this. The
Packers fan's faces, they make me so frustrated and so sick.
Because they are just trust fun fans. Everything is handed

(55:23):
to them. They've never had to work for anything, many
of them, many of them have been as long as
they've been alive. All they've known is far of Rogers
and now Jordan Love. Some of them are like, well,
you don't remember back in the seventies. The seventies was fifties,
sixty years ago. That's your excuse. And you know what
their comeback is too, You've always had it good. They're like, well,

(55:43):
we lose every year in the playoffs. In the playoffs,
you lose. There's twenty teams in this league that would
cut their finger off to make a wild card game,
and you're complaining about losing in the playoffs.

Speaker 3 (55:53):
They are one percenters, they're billionaires, they're trust fans, They're spoiled, rotten,
and it just continues.

Speaker 1 (55:59):
This year where they're like, you know what, let's just
grab Micah Parsons right before the season, just like we
grabbed Woodson and Reggie White. It's so obnoxious. I love
those people, but they make me sick because the rest
of the pit fans, especially Bears fans, have a coffee
cup asking for change while they're up in the Penthouse.

Speaker 3 (56:15):
It drives me nuts.

Speaker 2 (56:16):
Do you have any hope that this season could turn out?
Or are we looking at like selloffs here in a
month of like, hey, you know Cole Kometz, Dj Moore,
I mean, are you trading guys to restock the cupboard
to like, hey what Ben? Give him his Kyle Shanahan,
Sean McVeigh, even Matt Lafleur and kind of let him
shape this team over the next couple of years. We're
lucky to get him. You know, how do you approach

(56:37):
this if the like, if they lose the Cowboys and
it feel like they're season's over before October first, right.

Speaker 3 (56:43):
Dude, It's worse than that.

Speaker 1 (56:45):
The defensive coordinator of the Cowboys is Matt freaking Eberflus,
where they just fired because he was Ned Flanders as
a head coach and they couldn't win anything with them,
and he ran out of time in a game in
which he still had a time out. If they lose
to eber Flus's defense, then they're really screwed. But I'm
trying to the word I'm using for Bears fans right
now is recalibrate. Just just chill out for a minute.

(57:08):
They were thinking dream season. Oh my god, it's gonna
be a sensation. We're gonna be thirteen and four. Relax,
let's check in maybe almost Thanksgiving, Halloween maybe, But are
is Caleb playing well?

Speaker 3 (57:21):
Are they doing anything good?

Speaker 1 (57:22):
You can dash all that crap about we're gonna win
the North, that probably ain't happen. Let's see, we are
doing six to eight weeks from now. Is bet canj
Ben Johnson really coach? Because if he can, you better
start coaching his ass off.

Speaker 2 (57:34):
Okay, wece. You told Dan Patrick that this is the
first time you didn't have to audition for anything. They
called you and you get to sit with this legends
and rewatch these games a week from we'll recording this
on Wednesday the seventeenth, So the twenty fourth it's Titans Rams,
which it's kind of crazy when you look back at

(57:55):
that moment. Lorenzo O'Neil's buddy of mine, and obviously he
played a role in that and had an incredible care
in that Titans team one yard away. But the Kurt
Warner story, I mean, there's not really been anything like that,
you know, in our lifetimes. I Mean, this dude is
bagging groceries and then he just becomes a legendary Hall
of Famer at quarterback. You know, and that moment was
looking back, that team was loaded. But still, what was

(58:16):
it like? And just tell me a little bit about
the show.

Speaker 1 (58:20):
It's really fun to do. It's really fun to watch John.
I don't know me now in my current age. Sometimes
on a Saturday night, when my kids go to bed
and my wife goes to ben, I'm just sitting on
the couch. I'll pull up an old concert and I'll
just watch a concert on my computer and my phone.

Speaker 3 (58:36):
It could be like Pearl.

Speaker 1 (58:38):
Jam in nineteen ninety eight or whatever, and I'll just
watch the whole concert.

Speaker 3 (58:42):
It's just a nostalgia and it's fun.

Speaker 1 (58:44):
This show is like you're watching the concert with Eddie
Vedder and he's telling you all about it as you
watch it.

Speaker 3 (58:50):
You watch the old game.

Speaker 1 (58:51):
It's with players, fans, everyone who's involved with it, and
they just talk shop. Oh, on this play, everyone thinks
that this happened, but it didn't. And see how on
the sideline there the coordinator standing next to me. Here's
what we were talking about. It is the most fun
way to relive old games. And this particular episode you're
talking about me. Kurt Cedric d entertainer who's a huge
Saint Louis guy, was a Saint Louis Rams at the time,

(59:13):
ninety nine Rams the most ridiculous, improbable story in NFL history.
And yet you watch the game, dude, I find myself
kind of rooting for the Titans because Steve McNair was
so cool and they were just so tough, and they
had just come off the Music City Miracle and their
one yard short. The funniest part about it is watching
the game is Steve McNair is driving them down the field.
Kurt Warner watching it on the show, is openly nervous

(59:36):
that they're gonna score, even though he knows they're not
gonna score.

Speaker 3 (59:40):
He's freaking out, like the Rams are still gonna lose.
And you can feel it watching.

Speaker 2 (59:43):
It, you know. I actually I watch a lot of
like live music on YouTube, especially you know it's the
older you get. Yeah, I used to hate my dad
used to play music from his youth, and then you
get older. I'm about to have my first child thinking
about it. All I'm gonna listen to is like music
from the nineties, and he's gonna be you know when
he's ten, it's gonna be like twenty forty, he's gonna
want to kill me. But then hopefully maybe one day

(01:00:05):
when I'm gone, he will enjoy that as well. But
one clip from the Cowboys Netflix documentary that really stood
out to me. There's like a training camp practice and
they are on a field that looked like where I
went to elementary school. Their potholes and there was just
a rawness to the pre kind of internet financial boom
that the NFL sees now, where everyone's facility like a

(01:00:26):
crappy facility is still awesome. And I kind of missed
that era of like just the training camps. There was
just it was just different. And sometimes you watch these
games from the nineties because you did the Cowboys game right,
the ninety five game, is that football was just a
little bit different. It was the NFL. The way they
practice wasn't that much different than like the high school teams.
On the fields it was all crappy. I mean, it

(01:00:47):
was just I just missed the I just get nostalgic
sometime about sports, especially good I might.

Speaker 1 (01:00:52):
Get nostalgic about music, about sports, about everything. Michael Irvin
was on the show and he was talking about exactly
what you're bringing up. He used to come out to
practice and guys were just like getting ready for battle,
not for games, for practice, and he would walk up
and down the line of his own teammates and scream
at them, who's gonna outwork me today? Put your hand up,
if you're gonna outwork me, who's it gonna be? And

(01:01:13):
it was like they were ready to fight, and these
are the same team, they're not even having another team there.
And then they would just do like so much live hitting,
so much live goal line.

Speaker 3 (01:01:24):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:01:24):
As it turns out that was probably woefully unhealthy for
their long term health.

Speaker 3 (01:01:28):
But man, as a fan, it was really cool.

Speaker 2 (01:01:31):
I mean, as a kid, the Bill Walshoes take the
forty nine ers to Rockland and Sacramento in the their Dynasty,
and I would imagine they weren't charging. You could just
show up if you wanted to watch. I don't know,
Jerry Rice and Steve Young sling that pill around, and
those days like if you want to get access to
a training, you better be a VIP suite holder, you know,
or like the Masters, you know, a raffle to get involved.

(01:01:53):
It was just just simpler times. That's all.

Speaker 3 (01:01:55):
That's all I want to say, no doubts, no doubt.

Speaker 2 (01:01:57):
Well, I appreciate your time and looking forward to watching
in this. You know you and Kurt Warner, Cedric the
Entertainer watch that's a that's a pretty classic game and
obviously changed the course of Kurt Warner's life and what
the rest of those Rams guys for the rest of
their career.

Speaker 1 (01:02:12):
It's and honestly, you know what the funniest thing is
about this, I thought I knew everything about that game.
The twist at the end is that the Titans are
driving down the field and it's McNair and it's Eddie
George and they're down seven at the time they get
tackled at the one yard line, was short of the touchdown.
The question is, and this still follows them around, if
they had scored, would they have gone for two and

(01:02:35):
the win? Because they could have gone for two to
win by one point. Jeff Fisher has kind of gone
back and forth over the years saying what he would
have done. Eddie George is saying we should have gone
for two. If we scored, we definitely would have gotten it.
They were so exhausted. Can you imagine a two point conversion,
down one point with no time left.

Speaker 3 (01:02:52):
In the Super Bowl for the win. It would have
the most electric player ever, you.

Speaker 2 (01:02:55):
Would say, based on history defensive coaches back then, pre analytics,
he probably can the extra point. You know, I think
it's easy to say the game is.

Speaker 3 (01:03:03):
Like, we're beating the crap out of them. They are
out of gas.

Speaker 1 (01:03:07):
Even as somebody on the rams I was trying to
remember who it was, He's like, oh, they would have
got it. We were exhausted. If Mike Jones doesn't make
that tackle, we're losing. And even if it went to
overtime and they kicked, we would have lost. That is
the biggest tackle in NFL history by far, and we
talk a lot about it on the show.

Speaker 2 (01:03:21):
Well, it's one hundred percent run play right, Lorenzo O'Neil
leading the whole Eddie George getting it bro Okay, Kin,
have a good day and looking forward to watching this
next week.

Speaker 3 (01:03:31):
John, I'm a fan of yours, man. I appreciate you
having me on truly, thank you.

Speaker 2 (01:03:34):
Thanks, Thanks Kyle saying appreciate you. Okay, little mailbag time
at John Middlecoff. At John Middlecoff, this mail bag is
gonna be rapid fire, So we're gonna go try to

(01:03:56):
go really quick, bang out a bunch of questions, and
not be on here for too long with this Rams fan. Obviously,
Stafford is still playing an elite level. How do you
see the Rams going about their future quarterback situation moving forward?
It's no secret they'll be in the market for a quarterback.
They added the falcons first round pick. But if Stafford
is a top six to eight quarterback and stays healthy,

(01:04:16):
should the Rams look to keep them for another year
while the rookie quarterback learns. I think it's pretty simple.
I think they are going to have the optionality to
give them another one year deal similar like this year,
Like Matt, you want to make more money, you can
go somewhere else. Here's what we will be to offer.
But it's going to be a year by year situation.
And two, if there's a quarterback they like enough, you know,

(01:04:38):
assume the Falcons win seven to nine games, so that
pick is not going to be terrible. I guess they could.
I mean, hell, they could win ten, So both those
picks could be in the twenties. Could you package those
picks and get to seven or eight or nine. I
think you could. So if they liked a quarterback, they
could move up to get them. If they don't, they

(01:04:58):
can just stick in and pick. So they're gonna have options,
and just kind of the thing they got going for
him is they got a lot of equity and anytime,
you know, Chris Ballard, his back was against the wall
because the franchise wasn't going well and the owner forced
him to take Anthony Richardson. The Rams are not gonna
be forced to do anything, and they should. Like in McVeigh,
you trust and you just let him in Snead do

(01:05:20):
whatever they want with Stafford obviously, if they're gonna want
to give him another contract, that means he's playing well
and he's healthy. If they don't, means they think he's
old and he's done right. So and you let let Snead,
you know, Wheeling deal in the draft. I think you're
in a good spot for something that you don't have
an answer to. A question for the pod, what's with

(01:05:43):
the hate for carly ersay Gordon. She's grown up around football,
he whole life and probably knows more in the sport
than most of the Joe's sitting at home yelling at
the TV. Why is it a big deal that she's
on the sideline with the headset writing in her quote
stupid little notebook. That's my words, not his. As a
Colts fan, one of our biggest complaints is that Jim

(01:06:04):
Is he was out of touch. He focused on money
and guitars and amazing philanthropies, but it felt like he
didn't know what was going on in house. I respect
Carly for at least putting in the effort. Let's give
her some time before making fun of her. She got
made fun of by me simply because I think it's
performative to be on the sideline taking notes in what

(01:06:27):
I said, stupid little notebook with a headset is unlike
any team in the league, And we have owners like
Jerry Jones, who played college football who's the general manager,
like Al Davis, who was basically the coach slash general manager,
never were on the sideline. Because think about it like this.

(01:06:47):
If you work for somebody, whether it be a big
company or a small company, and every time that you
had a big meeting, big situation in your job, that
owner was right behind you staring at you. That'd be
an uncomfortable place to work. There's a when you watch
the Chiefs, the Bills, the Ravens, the throwners in the box.
If you want to listen to the headset, I don't

(01:07:07):
even have an issue with that. You own the team,
you can do that. But to be on the sideline
with a headset taking notes, give me a fucking break.
And this is not well, you're just saying this because
she's a chick. I don't give a shit. I would
say this about any ow. No one does it. No
one is doing this throughout the league. I don't see
Jeffrey Lurie on the sidelines. Hell, I don't even see

(01:07:29):
the GMS being like a quote unquote, what are we
doing this for? I do not understand it now. I
heard her quote you're gonna pay millions of dollars Like
I get it, but like I, why are you doing
this and no one else is doing this? What are
you gleaning from this? To me? You make it worse?

(01:07:49):
And honestly, I think it's it's a look at me moment.
I truly believe that you can say, what is it hurting? Well,
I just there's a reason no one else even contemplates
doing this. I have no problem if you're up in
the booth or you know, even what Tom Brady did
out of the way, but in the owner's box taking notes,
you can do whatever you want. I don't have an

(01:08:10):
issue with that. But on the sideline with a headset,
give me a fucking break. Been listening to you for
about a year. Definitely blah blah blah. Appreciate the kind
of words.

Speaker 3 (01:08:20):
I know.

Speaker 2 (01:08:20):
You mentioned that you worked at Cal Paul's athletic department,
and my end goal is to become a college athletic director.
How big of a deal is networking when it comes
to trying to get that job? When I was in
Friensident State, Danny White, who is now the AD at Tennessee,
his brother was a basketball coach. He's coach at Florida.
Thenk coaches at Georgia. Now his dad was the athletic

(01:08:42):
director at Notre Dame. This guy was just kind of
a I would say, very similar to a politician. And
I think part of being an AD it's like the
athletic version of being a politician. It's about raising money.
It's about keeping people with the money happy. It's about
being the front facing guy and some tough decisions. But networking,

(01:09:06):
which is a skill I suck at. I'm not great
at it. You know, relative to a lot of you
guys that are listening in whatever industries you're in, your
network is your net worth. I do believe that, But
just on a daily basis, I could be a lot
better at it, just in terms of keeping up with
my relationships networking new ones. I've always kind of hated

(01:09:27):
that term. It just feels kind of hollow and fake.
But I'm not a great politician, and there are certain
industries I couldn't have done because I don't have those skills.
So if you are going to get to the highest
level division I athletic director, I think it's borderline impossible
without being a really good networker, knowing people, dealing with people,

(01:09:48):
schmoozing with people. I think it's the majority of your job. Now. Obviously,
if you hired the right if you're the AD and
you hire Nick Saban or Urban, You're gonna have incredible
job security. But I think it's a huge part of
the job. I think it's a main part of the job.
And the pie chart, I would say networking, which also

(01:10:10):
includes raising the money, the boosters, dealing, you know, kind
of that realm is the overwhelming majority of the gig.
Can we talk about how McDaniels is basically the offensive
version of Brandon Staley, both likable media darlings and genius
for their respective sides, garbage head coaches with their teams

(01:10:31):
quitting on them three years later. Yeah, I mean I
would say that, you know, Brandon Staley was known as
a really good coach under Fangio and then he got
the one year of twenty twenty with the Rams. I
would say Josh has accomplished a lot more, and Josh
does have a champion in Tom that like, who is

(01:10:53):
Brandon Staley's guy beating down the drum for like Brandon
salely is it is him? As the kids would say,
like Tom believes that whether he's right or not, like
Tom believes that help Peyton Manning got Adam Gase was
that guy. When you have a high level endorser talk
about networking, like if Tom Brady is your number one, Hey,
I need a list of references. I need ten of them.

(01:11:15):
If my only list of reference is Tom Brady or
Peyton Manning and I'm a football coach, it's gonna be
a pretty good one. So I just don't know who
that guy is. For Brandon Staley, I would say, in
fairness to Josh, I couldn't even compare Brandon Staley to
Josh McDaniel's and I think they're both. What the hell
is the school in Ohio? I think they went to

(01:11:35):
the same college. A bunch of guys did Youngstown Youngstown State?
I think you're Youngstown? Is that where Brandon Staley went
to school? I know Josh did. He's from Ohio. He
went to no. I guess Brandon Staley went to Dayton
but coached he did he coach at Youngstown? Maybe it

(01:11:57):
was John Carroll. John Carroll is the school. I guess
some of these smaller schools in Ohio. Mixed up question
for the pod, I gotta pick up the pacer, I said,
rapid fire Lions fan. I think Jared Goff is a
top four quarterback in the sport at the moment. Everybody's
ready to put Herbert to top five status, but not Goff,
even though he had better success than Herbert. Since twenty
three he's first in yards passing yards per game, and

(01:12:21):
he's second in touchdowns and completion percentage. But it feels
like the media is pushing a certain narrative that he's
just an above average quarterback. The players think he's top
fifteen in the league, but not the media a top
fifteen player in the league. Your thoughts, I guess is
that based on the top one hundred last year, I
would say there's not a general manager in the league
that would take Jared Goff over Justin Herbert. And the

(01:12:42):
element is, like Justin Herbert can make every throw that
he can. Obviously, Goff benefits, I mean, he has an
incredible offensive skill group, from Saint Brown to Laporta to
Gibbs to Jamison Williams. I mean, hell, they even draft
this skuy Tesla who looks literally like a Tesla. She's
fucking awesome. I just think Justin Herbert's a better player
than Jared Goff. And if you had to choose, I

(01:13:05):
don't think anyone in the sport of football would take
Goff or Herbert over Golf. Excuse me, Goff over Herbert.
That being said, like Goff's had an incredible career and
is having an awesome career and as an excellent player,
and it's gonna go to a bunch of Pro Bowl
He's gonna make a lot of money and he's already
won some playoff games, So to me, you know Herbert

(01:13:25):
has to do it in the playoffs. But I think
justin Herbert's a better player, more versatile player. I mean,
the running element is something Jared Goff just can't move.
So if you could hit Jared Goff, he's like the
better version of Dak and Kirk Cousins. Herbert's like the
lesser version of Josh Allen. I heard what you're saying.
If you want to give me statistics, I can't argue,

(01:13:46):
but I just think that I think you're under selling.
I would not say Jared Goff stop for a quarterback
top ten quarterback, top six or seven quarterback, right, Like
how many guys if you go Mahomes, Alan Lamar Burrow
of healthy Herbert, I think you get in that next group,
Like who's a better passer from the pocket, Jared Goff

(01:14:08):
or Jalen Hurts?

Speaker 3 (01:14:11):
Right?

Speaker 2 (01:14:11):
How many guys in the NFC are better pocket passers
than Jared Goff? Not many? But he has no scramble
ability none, So if he has to scramble, you're in
major trouble. That's where it's like even Dak can move right,
Jalen obviously can move, Purty can scramble around Baker. Who's
really good? I mean the NFL, Jordan Love. I think

(01:14:32):
the NFC is full of guys that are not top
five guys, but when they're playing well, are really really
good players. And Jared Goss played well for a long time.
He was a number one overall pick. My question is this,
how are the Pittsburgh Steelers defense this bad under Mike Tomlin.
The offense under Rodgers doesn't seem like it's going to
be too bad even with the old line issues, that
defense is getting torched. Would love to hear your thoughts.

(01:14:52):
I said, I think this is definitely must win for
the Bears, just to keep some credibility in their season
if the Steeler lose this season. I saw Rogers say
today like, hey, you know, we can't have this binary mindset.
You know it's about the process, not winning and losing.
It's like, yeah, true, Aaron, but this defense can't be
this bad. And if you go on the road to

(01:15:13):
New England and can't stop Drake May and some pretty
average pieces, it wouldn't be concerning. It would be a
five alarm fire. So the first two games From a
defensive perspective, I thought their defense is gonna be good,
maybe not the best defense in the league, but one
of the better ones. And they look really, really bad.
I understand they have some new secondary pieces, but there's

(01:15:36):
just like a lack of physicality that just pretty evident
when you watch them play. So I would say it's
a little concerning. This is a huge week for the
kind of the Mike Tomlin raw raw rally the troops
Monday through Friday, Like by the time the game comes,
this team should be ready to fucking dominate. If the
Steelers are going to be a credible playoff level team,

(01:15:58):
they win this game and look really good. If they don't,
could be a weird season in Pittsburgh, and not even
just win this game, but like hold New England to
i don't know, low double digits, like thirteen points, and
just win a game like twenty five to thirteen or
twenty four to ten and just kind of smother Drake

(01:16:18):
May and the offense. That's what I'd want to see
if I was Steeler fan. I know the Panthers not
great for business, but I'm sadly a Panther diard. I'm
at the point where I think it's likely that Bryce
is not our franchise quarterback. Obviously, it's depending on how
this quarterback class shakes out. But from a general philosophy standpoint,
do you think we should draft a quarterback in twenty
twenty six or should we bring in a bridge quarterback

(01:16:41):
and draft the best player available. On one hand, I
don't want to set up another rookie quarterback to fail.
But on the other hand, with McMillan, who actually making
some plays, Chubba and Koker, I think our offensive weapons
are good enough for a rookie quarterback to succeed. I
was kind of high on the Panthers. I thought they
would be them and the Titans. I look like a
fucking moron right now.

Speaker 3 (01:17:02):
Now.

Speaker 2 (01:17:02):
Granted, at this point in time last year, I had
the Saints. Love the Saints coming into the season. They
were two and oh, I look like a genius. Things
can change. But the Panthers have been really, really underwhelming.
I think it's a little concerning. I'd be lying if
I've watched all the Snaps. I mean, I've had him
on one of my TVs, but I haven't really been
paying attention. Once they've been down big I know they
kind of came back. That score looks a lot closer.

(01:17:25):
I mean they were down what twenty seven to nine
in the second half against the Cardinals, So it's the NFL.
You kind of just mentally check out and they kind
of came storming back. But I'm with you, it's pretty concerning.
I would say he's got to I have a hard
time envisioning a scenario where they're drafting in the top

(01:17:47):
five or six and they roll it back with Bryce.
I really do. Now, maybe they could do something where
if they're bad again, they bring in they've already done that,
like an Andy Dalton type and draft the best player available,
But that's pretty dark. So I would say that Bryce's
career feels like it's we're pretty close for it being

(01:18:09):
scary time for him. It was last year kind of
settled it down. Feels like we're right back to where
we were when he got benched. He's a better player
than that. But yeah, you can't play three years and
the team suck and just keep your gig. Okay, a
couple more, I feel like there's a little bit too
much faith being put in the idea of the Chiefs

(01:18:30):
offensive problems will be solved once Rice and Worthy return,
I don't question that those guys will certainly help, But
I feel like people are acting like Rice is justin
Jefferson or Jabar Chase when we only saw Rice look
like a good wide receiver for about half a season. Agree,
in my mind, I don't think that he's gonna come
back and just be the top wide receiver. Everyone is

(01:18:51):
acting like he's gonna be Not to mention, he absolutely
is atrocious in the run game and an old Travis.
I think this team is being held to get with
duct tape. Yeah, I talked to a buddy there. I
think they're a little more optimistic than you. I think
defensively they're still gonna be good. I'm with you. I mean,

(01:19:11):
I think we gotta be careful. And I'm guilty of
this too. Like, once these guys come back, they're not
chasing Jefferson. Hell, they're not like DeVante Adams and Pooga
Nakua like there's they ideally would be fine. He had
a major knee injury. You know, Xavier Worthy's got fifty
nine balls. It's not like he's just been some dominant player.
But Andy can scheme him open. I actually think he's

(01:19:32):
a really skilled player. I'm pretty high on Zavi Worthy honestly,
but run game, it's not ideal. But coach Reed's not
a big call run guy. So I mean, as long
as you got Mahomes and you got the defense like
you're gonna stay credible. I would be stunned even with
an zero and two start, first time in ten plus years,
if they're not ten and seven, Like I hear you

(01:19:54):
saying to be duct tape. But when you say duct tape,
they're an injury or two away from being seven and ten.
That that would really surprise me. I would say their
floor would be like nine to eight ceiling, probably ten
or eleven wins though, so their ceiling's not very high
at this point. But I just have a hard time
seeing their floor be a disaster. I mean seven and
ten for the Chiefs would be the equivalent of like

(01:20:14):
two wins for most teams. With all to talk about
banning the toush push, why not take it a step
further and just ban the quarterback sneak. I feel like
better for football in a short yardage required the running
actual football plays. I do think the quarterback sneak is
a football play. I mean, it's a pretty historic play.
My entire life, people run the quarterback sneak, and no

(01:20:34):
one ever had a problem with the quarterback sneak until
the tousch push. I think the toush push and the
quarterback sneak are too dramatically different plays. I feel like
could be wrong in my life watching football. Let's just say,
since I was ten thirty plus years the quarterback sneak
is not some ninety nine percent effective play. It might
be over fifty, but it's probably closer to fifty than

(01:20:56):
it is seventy five. I mean, think how often we
see the quarterback sneaks.

Speaker 3 (01:21:01):
Hell.

Speaker 2 (01:21:01):
Josh Allen, who's one of the more physically gifted quarterbacks
in the league history, couldn't get quarterback sneaks last year
against the Chiefs. So I got no problem with the
quarterback sneak. The tush push is a completely different animal.
Nos Ites, it seems to me that neither the Bengals
nor the Bears seem to find any success with their
current rosters. Is it crazy for the Bengals to trade

(01:21:23):
Joe Burrow to Chicago for Caleb Rome and two to
three first round picks. The idea is similar to the
Stafford Golf trade. The Bears get what Ben Johnson wants,
the best pocket quarterback, and the Bengals get a ton
of picks. They also get to trade for a wide
receiver for picks for a fast track rebuild. I know
it seems out of pocket, but Burrow has serious health issues,

(01:21:45):
as we've seen in the last three years. I'm a
fan from Greece, so forgive my ignorance. I kind of
don't hate this situation of let's just say Burrow misses
the rest of the year. So he's had three major
injuries that's knocked him out for the season in three
separate seasons. You could argue the knee ones a little freakish,
but the other two you just don't see very often.

(01:22:08):
I have a hard time, and I've said this from
the jump. The injury maybe changes the conversation a little bit.
But seeing Mike Brown trade Joe Burrow, I mean it
would have to get way uglier for him to pull
the trigger, and for Caleb and Rome. So then he's
got all these wide receivers and a quarterback that we
don't know can play. Getting rid of Joe Burrow. I

(01:22:29):
think the Bears, I think Ben Johnson would one per
make that trade. I think it's whatever version you know,
Rome Caleb and two first round picks for Burrow, maybe
even throw in some other player. I think the Bears
would do whatever that version of that trade is, which
is somewhat fair, even if it's quote unquote an overpay.

(01:22:51):
I think the Bengals would one percent say no, even
with a turf toed Joe Burrow. I just think the
Bengals aren't even close to uh, not even just to
a yes, but to entertaining the idea. I just I
could be naive on this one, but just haven't seen
the Carson Palmer situation to see the way they handle
some of these off field situations with contracts. I think

(01:23:15):
we are a long way away. Look how long it
took for the Stafford situation to materialize. What was he
drafted in seven? So he played what fourteen thirteen plus years?

Speaker 1 (01:23:27):
There?

Speaker 2 (01:23:28):
What here's Joe Burrow drafted in twenty twenty so twenty
twenty one, twenty two, twenty three, twenty four. This is
six season in the league. I mean, we're not even
halfway to what the Lions endured with Stafford, who and
they weren't even they didn't even have any success. Really,
they made the playoffs a couple of times, never won
a playoff game. So I think I hear what you're saying,

(01:23:48):
and I don't mind the outside the box kind of
baseball basketball type trades. I just think the Bengals are
a long It's crazy to say if you're a Bengal fan, like,
why are we a long way? Awake? Guy gets hurt
all the time. Just look at the owner man. They
paid him a bunch of money. They will continue to
pay them a bunch of money. But I think we're

(01:24:09):
I mean minimum eighteen months this season and then another
season before that stuff, So work several off seasons before
that even gets entertained. And I think the Bears would
be all over that trade if it was available.

Speaker 3 (01:24:28):
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